How to download/edit a NREL WIND Toolkit

Hi, I am a mechanical engineering student using SAM for a project on wind energy in my area, and want to download and edit the .srw file to match data collected in my area. I am in Canada and using both the city, and longitude latitude approach in the NREL Wind Toolkit will not work as it is continental US only. I know what to do I just don't know how to download one of the toolkit resource files on my pc so I can edit the data. 
Any help is appreciated, thanks

Hi Matthew,

You can find examples of files in the .srw file format in the wind_resource folder in your SAM installation folder.

The .srw file format is also described in Help: samrepo.nrelcloud.org/help/weather_format_srw_wind.htm

Best regards,
Paul.

I am a mechanical engineering student working on a wind energy project in my area in Canada using SAM (System Advisor Model). I'm trying to download and edit a .srw file to match the data collected locally . However, the city and latitude/longitude options in the NREL Wind Toolkit are only for the continental US. I'm unsure how to download a resource file from the toolkit to my PC for editing.

Hello,

When you use the Download button on the Wind Resource page of SAM's wind power model, SAM accesses the "wtk-download" endpoint from the WIND Toolkit API on NREL Developer. This endpoint provides wind resource files for locations in the continental United States for 2007 - 2014.

The WIND Toolkit API has other endpoints, which are listed and described here: developer.nrel.gov/docs/wind/wind-toolkit/ .

Unfortunately, not all of the files provided by those endpoints are in the SAM CSV format that SAM requires. The SAM CSV Format for Wind is described in the "SAM CSV Format for Wind" topic in Help: samrepo.nrelcloud.org/help/weather_format_csv_wind.html .

The "wtk-canada-5min-download" endpoint has data for locations in Canada from 2007 to 2014 and does provide files that work with SAM. Its documentation page is here: developer.nrel.gov/docs/wind/wind-toolkit/wtk-canada-5min-download/ .

Here are some example URLs that you can use to download files from that endpoint. These examples use the SAM_DEMO key and email address which will allow you very limited access to the API. If you plan to use the API extensively, you should create an NREL Developer Network account at developer.nrel.gov/ and use your key and email address in the URLs.

To download 15-minute data for latitude = 49.23, longitude = -108.44 and year = 2014:

developer.nrel.gov/api/wind-toolkit/v2/wind/wtk-canada-5min-download.csv?wkt=POINT(-108.44%2049.23)&names=2014&leap_day=false&utc=false&interval=15&csv_format=csv&api_key=DEMO_KEY&email=SAM.USER@SAM.ORG

To download hourly data for latitude = 49.23, longitude = -108.44 and year = 2010:

developer.nrel.gov/api/wind-toolkit/v2/wind/wtk-canada-5min-download.csv?wkt=POINT(-108.44%2049.23)&names=2010&leap_day=false&utc=false&interval=60&csv_format=csv&api_key=DEMO_KEY&email=SAM.USER@SAM.ORG

You can paste these URLs into your browser or write a script in SAM's LK scripting language, Python, or other language to construct the URLs and make the calls to the API.

Best regards,
Paul.

As of January 2025, the following WIND Toolkit API endpoints ( developer.nrel.gov/docs/wind/wind-toolkit/ ) produce files that work with SAM's Wind Power model:

mexico-wtk-download
offshore-ca-download
philippines-wtk-download
seasia-wtk-download
vietnam-wtk-download
wtk-alaska-v1-0-0-download
wtk-canada-5min-download
wtk-download
wtk-kazakhstan-download
wtk-led-climate-v1-0-0-download
wtk-led-conus-download
wtk-mexico-5min-download
wtk-now23-california-v1-0-0-5min-download
wtk-seasiawind-v3-download

Best regards,
Paul.